This invention relates to disposable tips for pipettes and to the method of supplying such tips to the users thereof.
With the introduction of disposable items in the medical equipment supply field there has come a need for convenience packages for such items. By convenience, is meant that an appropriate number (depending on the item and its rate of use) of items must be packaged in a compact volume, the items must be readily accessible to the technician or other person using the item, and the item preferably is to be put into use without the necessity of the technician handling the item, particularly if the item is to contact biological fluids or the like.
Accordingly, the object of the present invention is to provide a method of supplying disposable tips to users so that the foregoing convenience features may be gained, especially that the need for manually handling the tips be obviated.
In carrying out the invention, there is provided a disposable pipette tip having a plurality of circumferentially spaced supporting ribs that support the tips as they are stacked one inside another without the walls of one tip contacting the interior of the tip into which it is stacked. The tips are placed in apertured trays such that the tips project through the tray but are supported thereon by their supporting ribs. When the trays are stacked one above another, the top of the pipette tips support the tray next above, while the downwardly projecting portion of the tip fits freely within the pipette tip stored in the tray next below. One or more stacks of pipette tip loaded trays are placed in an open top carton and this carton, in turn, is placed in a conventional flap top box or a sleeve type open ended box.
Features and advantages of the invention may be gained from the foregoing and from the description of a preferred embodiment of the invention which follows.